Chapter 77: The Might of Thunder
Hiruzen Sarutobi led the ANBU elite, advancing in a triangular formation.
"Ninja Art: Lightning Water Dragon Bullet!"
While still at a distance, he launched a preemptive strike. This combination ninjutsu was incredibly powerful and had a massive range, a perfect weapon for the battlefield.
But it hit almost nothing.
He confirmed his suspicion: these Cloud ninja were not to be trifled with. There was not a single weakling among them. His usually devastating, wide-range jutsu was ineffective.
But the priority now was to stop that Jinchuriki. Otherwise, all the ninja in the camp would be annihilated.
He drew the Adamantine Staff, the transformed Monkey King Enma.
"Enma, let's go!"
"Understood!" a deep voice replied from within the staff.
Hiruzen swung, and Enma, in perfect sync, instantly expanded the staff to the size of a giant pillar, sweeping through the Cloud ninja. A few of them were caught off guard and sent flying.
But the moment he retracted the staff, several figures were on him. He spun the staff, creating an impenetrable defense, and forced the three of them back.
Yes, forced them back. These were elites. They were not so easily defeated.
The ANBU behind him quickly moved to support him, but they were still a long way from the Jinchuriki.
"Lord Hokage! I'll assist you!"
An Akimichi clan ANBU appeared at his side, fending off a Cloud attack.
"Ninja Art: Super Multi-Size Technique!"
The Akimichi ninja instantly grew to a height of dozens of meters, a giant on the battlefield.
Hiruzen understood. He slammed the Adamantine Staff into the ground. "Enma! Extend!"
"Leave it to me!" Enma replied.
The staff grew in size and length. Hiruzen hung from it with one hand and one foot and was carried high into the air.
The Akimichi Jonin grabbed the massive staff, now several meters thick, and held it like a javelin.
"Lord Hokage, be careful!"
Hiruzen, standing at the tip of the staff, crouched low. "Send me over!" he roared.
The Akimichi clansman threw the staff with all his might, sending it flying towards Blue Bee like a shooting star.
"OORAH!"
But his massive body was now a target.
"Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld!"
"Lightning Release: Lightning Dragon Bullet!"
"Lightning Release: Wave of Inspiration!"
The moment he released the staff, the Akimichi ninja was hit by several powerful jutsu and crashed to the ground.
Hiruzen, flying through the air, had no time to look back. His eyes were fixed on Blue Bee.
"Die!"
He held onto the massive staff and brought it crashing down on him.
But Blue Bee had seen him coming. In his tailed beast cloak, he was more than just a Tailed Beast Ball cannon.
He sidestepped, easily dodging the devastating blow. Hiruzen changed his attack from a smash to a sweep, but Blue Bee just leaped over it.
But as the staff passed beneath him, a large, gray-furred hand shot out and grabbed him in mid-air.
The hand tried to crush him, but the tailed beast cloak burned it. With a yelp of pain, it retracted back into the staff.
This series of moves had finally interrupted Blue Bee's barrage, giving the battered Konoha camp a moment to breathe.
Though the cloak concealed his opponent's face, Hiruzen already knew from Orochimaru that he had a pair of Sharingan. So, from the very beginning, he had kept his head down, not looking at his eyes.
"Where did you get those eyes?!" he demanded.
But the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki did not reply. He just gave Hiruzen a cold look with his tailed beast eyes. The eight chakra tails behind him suddenly extended, like the tentacles of a giant octopus, and lifted him into the air. He began to move rapidly through the forest, as if on level ground. And from the mouth of the ox skull, he once again began to fire a barrage of small Tailed Beast Balls.
His target was not Hiruzen, but the Konoha camp.
"Dammit!" Hiruzen gritted his teeth. Blue Bee was completely ignoring him, using his strange movements to circle the camp, firing an endless stream of Tailed Beast Balls.
On the other side of the battlefield, Sakumo Hatake was being hounded by several high-speed ninja with strange shields. They were relentless, following him wherever he went, surrounding him, not so much attacking as simply preventing him from attacking the other Cloud ninja. Even when he managed to crack one of their shields, the Lava Release user, Dodai, would quickly repair it. They were like battlefield leeches, a ninja version of a three-man press.
With Konoha's two strongest fighters tied up, the other fronts were not faring well either.
An Aburame ninja, after a desperate struggle in which he had lost more than half of his insects, had finally found an opening and slit a Cloud ninja's throat. But before he could even catch his breath, the Cloud ninja had slapped a talisman on his neck. A green light flashed, and the wound began to heal. In less than ten seconds, the bleeding had stopped.
"Cough, cough, that hurt. Not bad, Konoha. Want to go again?"
The Aburame ninja's spirit broke. Again? I've barely got any insects left.
Similar scenes were playing out all over the battlefield. The Cloud ninja, with their Healing Talismans, were trading injuries for kills, and then using the talismans to heal their injuries. The Konoha ninja were being taken down for the price of a few pieces of paper. And these weren't just rookies. These were the elites who had managed to break through the Tailed Beast Ball barrage.
Unless it was a fatal blow, an external wound was practically meaningless to the well-equipped Cloud ninja. And even if they were injured and couldn't use a talisman themselves, a teammate would come and heal them. With the Healing Talismans, every Cloud ninja was a semi-medical-nin.
Hiruzen was desperately chasing the mobile artillery platform that was Blue Bee, but his strange movements and the incredible speed and defense of his tailed beast cloak made him impossible to catch. Kunai just bounced off him.
He finally realized that the only way to minimize his losses was to retreat. A full retreat.
"Dammit! Just three hundred men!" He couldn't accept it.
If the news of this battle got out, Konoha's reputation as the strongest of the hidden villages would become a joke.
But in the end, the need to preserve his forces won out. He gave up the chase and, gritting his teeth, returned to the main battlefield, only to find that Konoha was losing there as well. It was the last straw.
He summoned an ANBU agent. "Order a full retreat!" he commanded. "The ANBU will cover our rear!"
The battered ANBU agent, who had clearly just been in a bloody fight, nodded and disappeared.
As he fought his way back, Hiruzen could not relax.
Because the Third Raikage had yet to show his face.